Europe’s transport unions have never been weaker

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A discussion related by shipping journalist Justin Stares, the leading Brussels correspondent for the industry for nigh-on 15 years, and Eduardo Chagas, secretary general of the European Transport Workers Federation, on the declining power of organised labour since the European last had a “proper” socialist transport commissioner in Neil Kinnock. Since then it’s all been downhill for union-commission relationships as European mariners have become one of the rarest worker breeds while dockers’ repeated repelling of commission attempts to reform the ports industry has led to an almost total disengagement: “The reality is they [in the commission] don’t care. Not even the directorate-general for social affairs cares.”